


Inked

by We_Were_Younger



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Light Angst, No time powers or death and destruction to be found here, Past Amberprice (but they're still friends), Tattoo Artist Chloe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-03-06 19:32:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13418148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/We_Were_Younger/pseuds/We_Were_Younger
Summary: The tattooist approached the front desk. “Sorry about the wait, dude. I was…. wait, Max?!”At the sound of her voice and after getting a better look at her, realization washed over Max in heavy waves. On impulse, she stood up from the chair. “Chloe?!”OrAn AU where Max and Chloe reunite a little later than in canon but in much better circumstances. In San Francisco. At a tattoo parlor.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So....this is the very first fic that i've ever written for this fandom. I hope it isn't too rusty!

The loud clinging noise of the bell on the door as Max entered the building alerted her, partly because it only further reminded her of where she was, and the weight behind it.

There weren’t many people inside. Only one girl, who looked to be about Max’s age, was visible. She was sitting in a chair behind the front desk, looking as if she was reading something on her phone. Having the artistic eye she did, Max couldn’t help but pick up a few details about her. The girl was…well, beautiful. Her blonde hair was long and wavy, and her eyes were a warm hazel. She had a certain style that Max could only dream of having.  A kind of style that you often saw in magazines.

“Hey! Are you here to get a tattoo?”

The sound of the question made Max quickly realize she was staring. She flushed and nodded at the girl. “I…yes, I am.”

If the girl realized she was embarrassed, she didn’t show it. Her expression was all smiles as she continued speaking. “Sweet. It’s been kind of a slow day today so they’re shorthanded. But I think Chloe is about done with the customer she has right now, so she should be with you shortly.”

That threw Max off a bit. As if reading her mind (or maybe her expression), the girl continued. “Oh, I don’t work here. I’m just a friend of the artist.” She stood up and placed her phone down onto the small side table that stood near her and approached the desk, holding out a friendly hand to Max. “I’m Rachel, by the way. If Chloe’s going to be your artist, we might be seeing each other a few more times.”

Max smiled and reached over to shake Rachel’s hand. She was still riddled with some anxiety, but this Rachel girl just seemed to give off a comforting aura. It was strange, because Max usually found herself completely high strung around girls this pretty. “I’m Max.”

After the introduction, Rachel’s eyes seemed to narrow a bit, making that self-conscious feeling instantly come back. “Do I have something on my face?”

Rachel continued to stare at her for a few moments before shaking her head, the bright smile returning. “No. I was just wondering about something. But I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting my answer soon enough.” There was an almost mischievous look in her eyes as she said that last part.

Um…okay. Max had no idea how to even begin to respond to that. But luckily, despite her curiosity, Rachel seemed ready to move the conversation onto something else. “So…what sort of tattoo are you planning on getting?” The question was laced with true enthusiasm, as if she _really_ was interested in hearing Max’s plan. But it was genuine enough that Max couldn’t help but give in and answer her question.

“A butterfly on my arm,” she answered, secretly hoping that it didn’t sound, well, lame. It wasn’t the most detailed of ideas. And that was because she really didn’t know much about tattoos or how they worked. A part of her still wasn’t quite sure why she was going through with this in the first place. But then she tried to remind herself of the vow she had made…to finally break out of the mold she had always placed herself in. To do something she had never imagined herself to do to celebrate her upcoming graduation. And what a better way than to get a tattoo? “I don’t really have details yet. I was hoping to get some ideas here.”

Rachel continued to beam. “I’m sure Chloe will have a ton of ideas for you.” Her phone on the side table buzzed and she walked over to pick it up, glancing at the screen. “Shoot, I should probably get going. I’ll go let Chloe know that you’re here before I leave. But see you around, Max.”

Max nodded. “Yeah. See you around.”

Rachel shot her another smile before walking towards the door at the back, opening it and poking her head into it. Max could tell that she was talking to someone, but she wasn’t quite close enough to hear exactly what they were saying, only picking up on the word ‘customer’.

Afterwards, Rachel closed the door again and walked across the building, waving at Max before opening the front glass door, exiting the parlor with another clink from the bell.

Not knowing what else to do, Max simply took a seat in one of the waiting chairs. She wished Rachel hadn’t had to leave. Talking to her had ended up being a good distraction from her nerves. Never had she ever imagined that she would end up doing something like this. But at the same time, she was determined to make herself go through with it. If there was anything she learned over the past few years, it was that allowing herself to chicken out on things only eventually led to regret.

After a few minutes had past, a man that looked to be about in his thirties exited the room at the back, leaving the parlor without a word. Max assumed that was the customer that the tattoo artist had just finished up with. Which meant…

Max looked up towards the door and sure enough, someone was walking out of the room a bit behind the man. It was a tall girl with dyed blue hair and a sleeve of tattoos inked into one of her arms. It was exactly the type of look that Max imagined would match up with a tattoo artist, if not a bit younger.

Max felt her cheeks heat a bit at the realization that this girl was also super pretty. A different kind of pretty from Rachel, but nonetheless pretty. _Wowsers…are all the girls associated with this parlor gorgeous?_

But there was also something…familiar about this girl, but Max couldn’t place why.

The tattooist approached the front desk. “Sorry about the wait, dude. I was…. wait, _Max?_!”

At the sound of her voice and after getting a better look at her, realization washed over Max in heavy waves. On impulse, she stood up from the chair. “ _Chloe?!”_

The two girls simply stared at each other in what could only be mutual shock for a few moments. The more she looked at her, the confirmation that she was currently looking at her childhood best friend for the first time in seven years became more and more clear. Despite the many, _many_ changes, it was still undeniably Chloe standing in front of her. Her familiar blue eyes currently widened in complete surprise.

Max had no idea what to even begin to say. Well, there were about a million things she _wanted_ to say but she had no idea how to articulate them…or if Chloe even wanted to hear them after all this time.

Predictably, Chloe broke the silence first. “I _knew_ Rachel was acting weird when she told me I had another customer. But I never expected… _holy shit_ , Max. What are you even doing here?”

Well, that explained why Rachel gave her that look earlier. She said she was a friend of Chloe’s. Maybe she recognized her from photos Chloe had shown her? But the idea of Chloe keeping any of the photos of her seemed like a fond action that Max wasn’t deserving of…not after how things ended.

The reminder of that made nerves shoot up again. Was Chloe even happy to see her? So far, she didn’t look anything but shocked. But that wasn’t exactly reassuring. Shock eventually wore off.

“In San Francisco or in this tattoo parlor?”

“Shit…both. I never would have pegged you as a tattoo person. Then again, it’s been seven years since I’ve seen you.” Chloe shook her head, as if she still couldn’t believe everything that was happening. When Max didn’t say anything right away, she sighed. “Come on. At least pretend that you’re happy to see me.”

Max stiffened. “I _am_ happy to see you, Chloe. Really. I just…can’t believe it.” And she really was. Seeing Chloe again, even after all this time, just reminded Max of how much she had missed her. And how much she regretted allowing their friendship to dissipate because of her own dumbness. “And to answer your question…I’m going to school here. For photography.”

Chloe nodded. “That’s expected.” But there was a smile on her face that almost seemed fond, as if she was happy to hear that Max was still into photography. “But what about…” She gestured wildly around their surroundings. “ _This?”_

Max smiled faintly. “You are right about me not being a tattoo person. At least not normally. I…this is actually my first time getting one.”

Should she offer to go someplace else to get the tattoo? Chloe didn’t seem displeased with seeing her here so far, but she didn’t want to somehow end up forcing herself on her or something…

Chloe gestured towards the door at the back of the building. “Well, then step into my office, oh client of mine.”

She turned to walk in the direction of it, and a bit tentatively, Max followed her.

The room that they eventually entered looked a bit like an art studio, but more complicated. There were pictures of tattoos, some on arms and legs, others on different body parts such as stomachs and backs. Some looked more complicated than others, but they were all beautiful and detailed. Max briefly wondered how many of them were done by Chloe. There were also the tools and setup that Max assumed came with tattooing, even if she had little to no actual knowledge about it.

“Have a seat,” Chloe said before sitting in her own. Max nodded and sat in a chair directly across from her. “Fuck…I have to admit, I’m still tripping over this. I can’t believe you’re here.”

“I know, I can’t either. I mean, I can’t believe _you’re_ here.” She mentally chided herself for her lameness. “So…a tattoo artist?”

She’d never really given much thought about what Chloe may grow up to do when they were kids, mainly because Chloe herself never seemed to give too much thought to it. Unlike Max, Chloe had always been a very _in the now_ kind of person instead of thinking too deeply about the future.

Chloe nodded, grinning sheepishly. “Yeah. Never thought it would happen. But…Rach really pushed my ass the last couple years and helped me get to this point. Now, here I am. Working at a tattoo parlor and finally out of the hellhole that is Arcadia Bay.”

Rach…right, Rachel. It still boggled Max’s mind that the beautiful stranger she had talked to had been connected to Chloe, and she had stood there never realizing it. Logically, she knew there was no possible way she could have known that the Chloe Rachel mentioned was _her_ Chloe, but still…

The reminder that Chloe had obviously moved on with her life and brought new people into it made Max think about her failure in keeping in contact with Chloe again. She bit her lip, wondering if she should just bite the bullet and bring it up. It didn’t seem like Chloe was going to, for whatever reason.

“Listen, Chloe. I…I’m sorry. I should have kept contact with you. I just…I don’t even know how to try to explain why I didn’t. There’s just…”

“Max,” Chloe cut in, sounding firm. She then sighed. “It was so long ago now. You don’t have to apologize.”

“I know it was years ago, but…”

“Seriously, it’s cool.” Chloe smiled, but there was something that seemed a little forced about it. Almost too eager. “I’m not dwelling on it. You shouldn’t either.”

Max wasn’t quite sure about that. But Chloe seemed pretty adamant about not wanting to hear her apologies. Still…she couldn’t let it go quite yet. “You aren’t mad at me?”

A few seconds of silence passed before Chloe shrugged for a while. “I was for a little while. But I got over it. Like I said…it was years ago. We were kids. Kids drift apart all of the time when they move away…that sort of shit is normal.”

It wasn’t normal for them, though. It wasn’t normal to allow yourself to lose contact with your best friend that just lost their father in a car accident. Max may have been young at the time, but she knew that what she did was shitty and unfair to Chloe. She’d known it at the time too, but for some reason, hadn’t been able to make herself stop it. It’d been like watching herself go head first into a train wreck. And she had missed Chloe so much…which was being put into even more perspective for her now that she was finally seeing her again.

She just didn’t know how to explain all of that to Chloe with words. And it didn’t seem like Chloe even wanted her to try.

“Now, let’s get down to business,” Chloe said before she could say anything in response. She grinned and rubbed her hands together. “What kind of tattoo do you want to get?”

Max decided to let it go. She supposed she couldn’t justify trying to force Chloe into having a conversation she clearly didn’t want to have. The question sent her heart racing though. For some reason, showcasing her clear lack of knowledge about tattoos to Chloe seemed even more daunting than it had with Rachel, a stranger.

“A butterfly,” she replied a little timidly. “Maybe on my arm?”

Chloe tsked. “Yeah, I’m going to need a little more info than that. Any idea what you want it to look like? What colors to use?”

As they got further into the discussion of Max’s tattoo (although, Max wasn’t sure if they were really making much progress with how little ideas she was giving out) she couldn’t help but take in and notice more of Chloe’s features. She was still the same Chloe Price, despite the obvious differences.  The same blue eyes from her childhood stared back at her as they talked, just on a more mature face. A lot of her mannerisms were the same as well. The way her eyes lit up whenever she gave even the smallest hints of a smile. The way she never seems to be able to hold still, even while locked in conversation.

It made Max happy to know that there was still clearly a lot of the girl she once knew still in her. But also, even more sad about all the years they potentially missed out on together because she was a coward.

“Alright,” Chloe eventually said with a sigh once she realized that the discussion was going nowhere. “How about I draw out some sketches later and show you, so you can see if you like any of them? That might give you more ideas at least.”

Max nodded. “That sounds good. But, um…” She bit her lip. “I know I’m being kind of a pain in the ass. I can go to another tattoo place, if you want.”

Chloe almost looked offended at the notion. “Fuck no! There’s no way I’m going to pass up the opportunity to give Max Caufield her first tattoo. I have to leave my mark on you.” She grinned.

For some reason, Max could feel her face heat up at that. She hoped it wasn’t visible. But she nodded with a small laugh. “Well okay. Do you want me to come back here when you’re ready to show me the sketches?”

“Nah. Who knows how packed this place will become in the next few days. There’s no point in scheduling an appointment just for that.” Chloe grabbed a pen from a nearby table and tore off a piece of paper from a magazine, quickly scribbling something onto it. “How about we just call or text each other instead? Then we can schedule a meeting someplace else.” She slid the piece of paper over to Max. Upon picking it up, Max confirmed that it was a phone number.

“Okay.” She stared at the piece of paper for probably an embarrassingly amount of time before realizing it. “Oh, I guess you want my number too?”

Chloe raised her eyebrows, an amused glint in her eyes. “That’s the plan Max, yes.”

Max nodded and ripped another piece of paper from the same magazine. Chloe handed over the pen and Max wrote her phone number across it before handing it back to Chloe.

“Sweet,” Chloe said, looking at the paper before stuffing it into her pants pocket.

She looked like she was about to say something else when the jingle of the bell on the front door signaled that someone else had entered the parlor.

Chloe looked sort of annoyed about the interruptions. “Figures,” she murmured lowly. She then refocused on Max. “It looks like I have another customer to take care of. But…I’ll talk to you later, okay? Use that number.”

It seemed that Chloe had reasons beyond just the tattoo for giving Max her number. The idea brightened her mood.

“I will,” Max promised as they both stood up from their seats. She hesitated for a few seconds, wondering if she should really do what she wanted to. In the end, she went for it, stepping close to Chloe and wrapping her arms around her in a hug. “I really missed you, Chloe.”

Chloe didn’t respond right away, and Max panicked and wondered if hugging her was really the right thing to do. But eventually, she felt the warm embrace of Chloe returning the hug. “I missed you too. But um…hey, we have _a lot_ of catching up to do. So, I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”

Max nodded after they broke apart. “We do. And we will.” She was still surprised that Chloe was so willing to let her back into her life so quickly. She’d never believed that they would see each other again but if they had, she’d always suspected that she would at least have to grovel a little for Chloe’s forgiveness. But she was going to try hard not to fail Chloe again with this second chance. She smiled. “See you around, Chloe.”

Chloe smiled faintly. “Yeah. See you later, Maxaroni.”

Maxaroni. Now that was nickname Max hadn’t heard in a long time. But the sound of it made her feel even more warm.

With one last wave to Chloe, Max exited the room, eventually brushing past Chloe’s newest customer, a girl who looked to be an older teenager, as she left the parlor.

It seemed that her time in San Francisco was going to be even more interesting and better than she originally thought.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So....this chapter is a little shorter than the first, so sorry about that. It would have been out a few days ago but I had a hell of a time getting it to post correctly. I eventually realized it was because I used emojis in the chapter. Apparently A03 doesn't support that. But....since I kind of needed it for parts of the chapter, I still have the characters "using" emojis in their texts. So just use your imagination and pretend that you can see emojis lol
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has read/commented so far! :)

Chloe was sort of relieved that her last customer of the day hadn’t wanted much. Just a touch up on a small tattoo that he already had. After about an hour, she was closing shop and heading home.

She wouldn’t have been able to fully focus on work like she should if she had to work too much longer. Not after seeing Max.

Max.

Chloe pulled out the slip or paper that had Max’s phone number written on it out from her pocket once sitting down in the driver’s seat of her truck, simply staring at it for a few moments.

It still boggled her mind that this happened. That she had casually ran into Max at her place of work after seven years of complete silence from her. She’d accepted the idea that she would probably never see Max again years ago and just like that, she was back in her life. As one of her tattoo customers.

Chloe placed the slip of paper back securely in her pocket, figuring she would wait until she was back at the apartment before using it.

She shook her head in slight exasperation at her own eagerness as she started up the car and maneuvered out of the parking lot. Secretly, she’d rehearsed what she would say to Max if she ever saw her again about a thousand times in her head. The imagined scenarios often included some yelling, some demanding of answers about why Max had decided to just leave her in the dust the moment there was distance between them, when Chloe had needed her most. But none of what she had imagined happened when she did come face-to-face with her.

Instead, she’d brushed aside Max’s attempts to apologize, telling her that it didn’t matter anymore. And that was mostly because…despite the bitterness she still felt, any desire she may have had to scream at Max disappeared the moment she laid eyes on her again, her excitement to potentially have her back in her life mostly replacing it.

After about ten minutes of driving, Chloe arrived at the apartment buildings she lived at with Rachel, _Shadow Wood Apartments,_ and swiftly parked the truck and got out, climbing the stairs to get inside.

The first thing she’d noticed upon entering the small apartment was that Rachel wasn’t there. She must still be at wherever she took off to right before her meeting with Max.

Speaking of….

Chloe sat down on their tiny loveseat and took out her phone, quickly punching out a text to Rachel.

**(5:02 PM) You’re an asshole**

Surprisingly, the reply was almost immediate.

**(5:03 PM) Rach: Did you enjoy your reunion? ;)**

Chloe rolled her eyes at the use of the emoji. 

**(5:04 PM) You should have given me a warning. Fuck.**

**(5:05 PM) Rach: I wanted you to be surprised. I just wish I could have been there to see your reaction. I’m sure it was great.**

Before Chloe could reply to that or ask where she’d gone off to, her phone was dinging with a second text.

**(5:05 PM) Rach: She’s hella adorable. I get why you’ve been hung up over her all these years.**

Chloe could feel the somewhat frustrating way her cheeks heated up at reading that, remembering the thoughts that ran through her head during the brief few seconds before she realized that the cute hipster-looking girl waiting for her service was Max. She’d accepted that she had a little bit of a crush on her best friend as a kid a while ago but seeing Max as a young adult was a whole other ballpark.

Talking about all of that to Rachel, who was still technically her ex in a sense, wasn’t something she really wanted to get into. At least not right now. She was still processing the whole idea of Max suddenly being back in her life at all.

Instead, she decided to change the subject.

**(5:08 PM) Are you coming home tonight?**

It took Rachel a few moments to reply this time.

**(5:12 PM) Rach: Yeah. I’m hanging out with Lucas. But I think I’m gonna leave soon. Want me to pick up some pizza on the way back?**

Lucas was Rachel’s newest…something. Chloe wasn’t exactly sure where their relationship stood because Rachel never seemed into talking about her flings. And well, most of them didn’t really last long enough to seem too important.

**(5:13 PM) Fuck yeah! Bring me food.**

**(5:15 PM) Rach: Alright. See you soon :)**

Chloe placed her phone down and stood up, figuring she could go start on the sketches she promised Max. A butterfly on her arm was a vague idea to build off, but at the same time, it gave her enough room to come up with plenty different possible ideas. And it was just so… _Max_ to give her a response like that. It kind of comforted Chloe a little to know that she didn’t seem to have changed too much. She only hoped that she’d be able to come up with something that Max would like.

She decided to make the first sketch a simple butterfly, both to possibly give Max a less complicated option and to use it as a base for the other concepts she may come up with. She’d worry about the colors later.

She was just finishing up the first sketch when the sound of the door swinging open signaled someone’s arrival. Chloe looked up from the sketch to find Rachel entering the apartment, carrying what looked to be a medium-sized pizza in her hands. Chloe grinned at that. A medium sized pizza may normally seem too much for only two people, but she was glad that Rachel more than knew better at this point.

“I went to _Woodstock’s Pizza_ again. The prices are pretty decent, and it was good last time we had it. I went with the all meat kind, your favorite.” Rachel placed the pizza on top of the dining room table and looked over at the butterfly sketch that Chloe was hovering over. “What’s that?”

Chloe tried to maintain a casual façade as she answered. “A sketch for Max’s tattoo. She gave me the vaguest idea ever so I’m trying to spin out some possibilities.”

Rachel smiled in a way that told Chloe that she had seen right through the front she was trying to pull, but her voice was warm when she spoke. “I’m sure whatever you come up with will be awesome. Your ideas always are.”

Chloe bit her lip. “I just hope I don’t screw it up somehow…”

“You won’t. Have some faith in yourself, Chloe.”

That was easier said than done. The weird thing was, Chloe usually _did_ have some confidence when it came to her tattooing. It was a confidence that had taken her a long time to build within herself over the last few years, but she had managed it. But this situation with Max was different. It wasn’t just a usual assignment with a client that Chloe may or may not ever see again. This was a tattoo for Max. Max’s first tattoo. And because of that, Chloe had the burning urge to make sure it was one of her best tattoos yet.

After they dug into the pizza, she and Rachel migrated to the living room with their plates of food, Chloe lounging on the loveseat again and Rachel taking one of the armchairs across from her. Rachel had picked the remote up and changed the channel to cartoons.

This wasn’t exactly the Santa Monica dream the two of them always had in the past. They lived in a tiny two-bedroom apartment and they certainly weren’t off having adventures. Or even the steamy love affair Chloe had used to daydream about before realizing that she and Rachel were better off as friends. But in a way, this was better. And less hectic. Rachel was going to school and had a job at the mall on the side. She still had dreams of being a model, but she’d quickly discovered that she also needed a backup plan in case that fell through. And Chloe was excelling as a tattoo artist. And they still certainly found ways to have plenty of fun around San Francisco.

But best of all, they were free from the hellhole that was Arcadia Bay.

“Did you ever listen to that voicemail your mom left you this morning?” Rachel suddenly asked, having finished off her last piece of pizza.

Chloe froze for a moment. With all the Max excitement, she’d almost allowed herself to forget about that. Reluctantly, she nodded. “Yeah. I did.”

“What did she say?”

Chloe shrugged her shoulders. “She’s divorcing the step douche.”

The last time she had seen Joyce in person, before her and Rachel had made the move to San Francisco, they’d had a huge fight. Mainly over David and Chloe’s unwillingness to make any sort of ‘amends’ with him. She’d always felt a little betrayed at how easily her mother was always able to take David’s side over hers but that last time had been the boiling point. The phone message Joyce had left for her this morning was the first time since the move that either of them had tried to contact the other.

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Rachel said, perking up a smidge with surprise. “Are you going to call her back?”

Chloe honestly didn’t know the answer to that. A part of her felt shitty for being conflicted. Joyce clearly wanted to talk to her, maybe even say she was sorry. But she couldn’t help but be afraid. Talking to Joyce, about David of all things, felt like taking a step back into all the shit she had left behind when she left Arcadia Bay. Shit that she didn’t want to revisit. She’d been perfectly content in living in the bubble she’d been in for the last couple of months, trying to forget everything.

“I think you should call her, Chloe,” Rachel added after a few moments of silence.

Chloe looked at her with a frown. The next words burst from her impulsively. “What about you? Are you going to call your dad?”

Rachel looked at her with a hard gaze, harder than she had in a long time, and Chloe already regretted saying what she did. “That’s different. And you fucking know it.”

She did know. There were times where Chloe wondered if she had made the right choice in telling Rachel the truth about James’ involvement in the attempted murder of Sera all of those years ago. But she also knew that if the roles were reversed, she would have been beyond pissed if Rachel ever lied to her about something like that. It had obviously and understandably ruined Rachel’s relationship with her father forever though, damaged in a way that didn’t come anywhere close to Chloe’s relationship with Joyce, despite all the shit between them. Sometimes, Chloe still had a very bad habit of putting her foot in her mouth and saying the wrong things.

She nodded, clearly regretful. “You’re right. Fuck…I shouldn’t have tried to compare it. I’m sorry.”

Rachel’s shoulders slumped in a visible display of relaxation. Chloe could tell that she was probably still at least a little pissed, but her fight mode was gone. “You should call Joyce,” she repeated. “It might make you feel better about certain things. Even if you don’t want to fix your relationship, you could at least get some closure.”

Chloe sighed. “I’ll think about it, okay?”

Fortunately, that seemed to sate Rachel. Either that, or it became clear to her that it wasn’t a topic Chloe wanted to delve into. They lapsed into casual conversation after that, trying to come down from the tension that had been unexpectedly and accidentally raised.

Eventually, Rachel went upstairs to take a shower, leaving Chloe alone in the living room. She contemplated whether she should just chill and watch T.V for the rest of the evening or do something productive. Like work more on Max’s sketches. Anything to get her mind off Joyce and Arcadia Bay. At least for now.

It was then that her phone dinged with a text message. She picked it up, curious when she saw that it was from a new number.

**(6:47 PM) (415)-356-0903: Hey Chloe, it’s Max. I just wanted to tell you that it was really good to see you today. I missed you a lot, even if it didn’t seem that way.**

Chloe was sort of glad now that Rachel left to go take a shower because the smile that was now splitting her face in half was probably cheesy as fuck. But she didn’t care. She quickly added Max to her contact list before typing out a reply.

**(6:49 PM) It was good to see you too Max. We should totally hang out soon.**

She mentally berated herself for that lame reply before an idea popped into her head. She was typing out another text and sending it before she could even think to stop herself.

**(6:50 PM) Are you doing anything tomorrow?**

Max’s reply came fast.

**(6:51 PM) Maxaroni: No. Why?**

Chloe’s mind scrambled to find the best way to word this next text. But in the end, she decided to just be straightforward. She wasn’t quite sure why she was so nervous in the first place. It may have been a long time since they really hung out, but it was still Max. There had been a point in time when Max was closer to her than anyone.

**(6:53 PM) Do you want to come over to my place tomorrow?**

This time, a reply didn’t come right away and although Chloe tried not to jump to conclusions too quickly like she always did, it made her nervous. Was she rushing things? Was Max not as ready to jump back into a friendship as Chloe thought she was? The common fear of rejection swept over her in aggressive waves.

She nearly dropped her phone when she finally got a reply.

**(6:59 PM) Maxaroni: You already finished the sketches?**

When she’d told Max that she wanted to exchange numbers to contact each other about the tattoo, she hadn’t taken into consideration that Max thought it might have been the _only_ reason Chloe had given her the number.

**(7:00 PM) No dude. I’m not even close to being done. I just want to hang out. I…sort of missed you too.**

She was relieved when the reply came much faster this time.

  **(7:01 PM) Maxaroni. Oh. Well, I’d love to hang out with you Chloe :)**

Chloe rolled her eyes, even though she was smiling wide again. It seemed that Max used emojis too.

**(7:02 PM) Ugh I hate emojis. What’s your address? I’ll come pick you up at around…. 5 tomorrow?**

**(7:03 PM) Maxaroni: That works. But you don’t have to do that….**

**(7:04 PM) I want to ;)**

**(7:06 PM) Maxaroni: …I thought you just said that you hated emojis**

**(7:07 PM) I do. Usually ;)** **Now spit out that address Caufield**

Max texted her the address to her school where she was living in a dorm and Chloe realized with relief that it wasn’t too far of a drive from where she and Rachel lived. Only about a ten to fifteen-minute drive.

After she and Max had said their ‘see you tomorrows’, Chloe went back to working on the sketches. Even though they weren’t the reason she wanted Max over tomorrow, she figured she could try to get something to show to her while she was here, maybe get some ideas bouncing.

She didn’t fully realize until Rachel came back downstairs and pointed it out to her that she hadn’t stopped smiling since the text conversation ended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even though i'm much more of a Pricefield shipper than I am an Amberprice one, I do really love Rachel. In my opinion, she's one of the more interesting characters in the LiS franchise, which is why i'm kind of giving her a decent role in this fic. 
> 
> I did decide to go with a switching of POV of Max and Chloe, mainly because there's things I want to explore with Chloe's character that would be difficult if her POV was never shown. Next chapter will be Max's again though. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah....it's been a longer time than I wanted. But luckily this chapter is the longest to date. Features lot's of hopeless gay Max Caufield. I hope people like it!

Max had never fully grown out of her awkward shy streak but aside from that, her attendance at the University of San Francisco had been more fulfilling than she had imagined it to be.

She was participating in their Fine Arts program of course, and she found the classes she attended challenged her in just the right ways and expanded her photography horizons. And she did well in them, one of her professors, Mrs. Browning has called her one of the best in the group of people going through the photography segment.

But the best thing about her college life would have to be her roommate Kate.

Max glanced briefly up from her phone to look at Kate, who was currently slumped over her desk across the room and working on her drawings.

She and Kate had met during their freshman year at the university, having been roommates yearly since then. Kate was possibly even shyer than Max was, so the friendship took a while to form. But once it did, Max found that Kate was the person that came closest to filling the Chloe shaped hole she’d had in her heart ever since leaving Arcadia Bay. She was kind, amazing, and Max was thankful every day that they had been assigned as dormmates those few years ago, allowing them to become friends.

“Is something wrong, Max?”

Max looked up from her phone a second time, seeing Kate now facing away from her desk and towards her. She had a look of clear concern on her face.

Max shook her head. “Nothing’s wrong. Um…why do you ask?”

Kate smiled faintly. “You’ve been staring at your phone for a while now.”

At her words, Max flushed lightly. She hadn’t realized she’d been that noticeable about it.

She’d been reading the texts from Chloe she had gotten the night before repeatedly, the sight of them causing a warmth in her chest every time. She supposed it was her way of still basking in the glow that came with Chloe being back in her life again.    

It was then that she remembered that she hadn’t told Kate about that yet. Their schedules had been so different and busy that they hadn’t gotten a lot of chances to sit down and really talk the last couple of days. She set her phone aside on her bed for a moment. “Do you remember when I told you about Chloe?”

“Your friend from Arcadia Bay?”

Max smiled. Another thing she loved about Kate was she that she was a good listener. She nodded. “When I went to get my tattoo I…saw her there. She’s going to be my artist, actually.”

Kate’s happy smile was almost immediate. “That’s wonderful, Max. I know that you’ve really missed her.”

“Yeah. I have.”

“Are you two going to be friends again?”

That was a question that Max hesitated to answer, and she hated it. Even though Chloe was inviting her over today and had seemingly forgiven her for losing contact all that time ago, she still wasn’t entirely sure that everything would go back to the way they once were. And, while Max could tell she was the same Chloe in a lot of ways, she also knew that she had changed in ways as well. And she had Rachel in her life now. Would Chloe still have room for Max in her life, or would they start to fade away again after the tattoo was finished?

She did know one thing, though. If their relationship fell apart again, it wouldn’t be her causing it this time. Of that, she was determined.

“I hope so,” she eventually replied. “I mean…. I guess we haven’t really talked about much outside of the tattoo. But I want her in my life again. And…she invited me over to her apartment.”

Kate had an almost sly look on her face. Well, as sly of an expression that someone like Kate could make. “Is that why you’ve been staring at your phone? Has she been messaging you?”

Max flushed again and glanced down at her phone with a small smile, re-reading the texts she had exchanged with Chloe last night and a little this morning. Going through them again gave her that warm feeling of being hopeful that they could have the relationship they had before. Or at least close to it. “Yes.”

“I don’t think she would be putting in this much effort if she didn’t want to be your friend again,” Kate reassured gently.

Logically, Max knew that Kate had a point. But that slight doubt wouldn’t fully leave the back of her mind. She hoped that the visit with Chloe today would fully put an end to such thoughts.

“Thanks, Kate. I hope you’re right.”

* * *

 

After spending about twenty minutes making sure she was ready for her visit to Chloe and Rachel’s apartment, Max had gotten a text from Chloe telling her that she was outside the building waiting.

She said goodbye to Kate and grabbed her phone and polaroid camera before exiting the dorm room and climbing down the stairs from the second floor.

Sure enough, once she was outside, she could see a truck parked outside the building with Chloe sitting on the driver’s side.  A small grin was visible on her face as she moved her hand out one of the windows, beckoning Max forward.

Max smiled as she approached the truck, climbing into the passenger seat. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Chloe replied, shooting Max another one of her grins before reaching forward to start up the car, backing out of the parking space. “Are you ready to have your mind blown by my awesome lair?”

“I don’t know. Should I mentally prepare myself?”

“Definitely.” Chloe drove out of the parking lot and onto the main road before letting out a small laugh. “Nah, not really. It’s a small apartment. But it’s ours, you know? It’s pretty sweet to finally have our own place.”

Ours. She meant her and Rachel. And even though Max knew she had no right to feel the way she did, she couldn’t stop that sense of…well, jealousy if she was being honest with herself, and fear that Chloe really didn’t have any room left in her life for her from popping up again.

She mentally chided herself. She shouldn’t be dwelling on her lame insecurities. Especially not now.

“Do you ever go back to visit Arcadia?” The question was innocent and stemmed from genuine curiosity. It’d been years since Max had last seen Arcadia Bay and even though most of what she missed about it always had to do with Chloe, she’d be lying if she said that there weren’t other things she had missed about it too. Some of the people and the scenery of her childhood.

Then again, maybe Arcadia Bay wasn’t so much of a happy memory for Chloe, all things considered.

They were stopped at a red light and Chloe stiffened as she replied. “I haven’t been there in over a year.”

Max’s eyes widened. “Not even to see Joyce?”

“No. Look, can we just not talk about that right now?”

She didn’t sound angry. But Max could hear that there was no chance for negotiation from her tone. And that she probably would become quickly angry if she pressed the subject further. So, even though she was officially kind of worried, Max decided it was best not to push. “Okay.”

She was a bit deflated. They weren’t even at Chloe’s apartment yet and Max had already managed to do something to upset her.

What had happened to cause Chloe to not visit Arcadia Bay in over a year, even to visit her mother? Max knew that the place held painful memories for Chloe after what happened to William, but she never expected it to be this bad. She was afraid that there was something else going on. Something that Chloe wasn’t telling her.

The light turned green and the rest of the ride was depressingly silent. Max wanted to say something to break the silence but couldn’t think of anything. She briefly wondered if she should apologize…even if she wasn’t entirely sure what she would be apologizing for.

About ten minutes passed and they were soon parking directly outside an apartment building. Max took a moment to soak in the sight. It didn’t look like it was a fancy apartment complex by any means, but it was decent and in what looked like a nice location.

Chloe got out of the car first, looking at Max before shutting the door. “Max, what are you waiting for? Come on!”

Max looked over in her direction and saw that she had a very clear grin on her face. A sense of relief washed over her at the realization that she wasn’t mad. At least not anymore.

“Alright, alright.” She let out a small laugh as she climbed out of the passenger seat and shut the door, following Chloe towards the building.

They walked side-by-side up the small staircase. “You live on the second floor?”

Chloe nodded with a huff. “Yeah. And it fucking sucks. But it’s gotten better since our old neighbor moved out. The ones underneath us now don’t complain nearly as much. We could hardly walk across our old living room without getting yelled at. He was an asshole.”

Max couldn’t help the swell of amusement she felt while thinking about the type of conflict Chloe might have gotten into with her old ‘asshole’ neighbor.

Chloe unlocked the apartment door once they reached it, immediately opening it wide enough to allow Max entrance, shutting it behind them.

The apartment was small and cozy looking with a loveseat and an armchair in front of a small television set. There was also a tiny kitchen and a dining table with two chairs. Max could also tell that there seemed to be at least two small bedrooms, which, for some reason, caused an invisible weight to be lifted off her chest.

“Make yourself at home,” Chloe said, tossing her jacket on top of the loveseat. “Are you hungry? There are mini corndogs in the freezer that we can pop into the oven.”

Mini Corndogs. Joyce used to make those for them all the time during their weekly sleepovers. It had always been one of their favorite snacks to eat together. She smiled and nodded. “Sure. I could go for something to eat.”

They took out a pan to cook the mini corndogs in and soon enough, they were placed in the oven with a wait time of fifteen minutes.

They sat at the dining room table as they waited, directly across from each other.

“Where’s Rachel?” It was only now that Max was realizing that the other girl was nowhere to be found.

“Out and about with her newest boy toy again. I’m afraid you’re just going to have to settle for me for now.”

“Darn,” Max said, smirking faintly. In reality, she was happy that she got to have Chloe all to herself for at least a short time. “I guess I’ll live.”

Chloe flipped her off with a smile before clearing her throat, suddenly looking a bit nervous. “So…this isn’t the reason I invited you over, but I do have a few sketches for your tattoo finished. They’re still rough concepts but I can show them to you if you want.”

Max nodded. “Sure.”

She watched as Chloe took out a small stack of small, square-shaped paper, eventually sliding them across the table over to her. Max took them and spread them out so that she could get a good look at all three of them.

It didn’t take her long to conclude that Chloe had absolutely nothing to be nervous about.

“Wow,” she breathed. “These…. these are amazing, Chloe.”

And they really were. Chloe took the simple concept of a butterfly tattoo and turned them into beautiful, intricate concepts. All three of them were amazing but Max’s favorite was the middle one. The butterfly was titled at a sideways angle and had shading under it that looked like it was 3D. The wings of the butterfly were dotted with clear circles and had swirls and elegant flower-like shapes decorating it.

Chloe looked almost bashful when Max tore her gaze away from the designs to look at her again. “Geez….um, thanks, Maxipad. I’m glad that you like them.”

“I love them,” Max corrected her with a smile. “I can’t wait to see what the tattoo will look like once it’s finished.”

The bashfulness never faded from Chloe’s expression, but she also looked extremely…happy. Had she been worried about her not liking the designs? “Do you have a favorite?”

Max held up the middle one. “All three of them are really good. But this one.”

“Good choice. That one was my favorite too. Got any colors in mind?”

“Blue,” Max said, almost embarrassingly fast. 

Chloe raised her eyebrows. “Blue, huh? You answered that pretty fast.”

Max nodded. “Yeah…it’s a pretty color,” she replied, noting the blue of Chloe’s dyed hair and the blue of her eyes. A really, pretty color…She could feel her cheeks heat up in a flush.

“Alright. Blue it is then.” Chloe seemed to stare at her for a long moment before the timer she had set up on her phone for the mini corndogs went off.

“Sounds like our chow is done.” Chloe stood up from her chair and walked over to the oven, putting on mitts before taking the pan of mini corndogs from the oven, placing them on the countertop.

“They probably need to cool down a little before they’ll be ready to eat,” Max warned, watching as Chloe took down two plates from one of the shelves.

“I’m starving,” Chloe argued. With little to no visible difficulty, she began to pluck each of the mini corndogs off the pan and onto the two plates, dividing them evenly.

She placed Max’s plate in front of her before retaking her seat. Max cringed as she watched her pick up one of the mini corndogs. “Chloe, I really don’t…”

“Ahhh!” Chloe dropped the mini corndog onto her plate, immediately attempting to air out her mouth. When that didn’t seem to fully work, she practically ran into the kitchen, approaching the sink and gulping down handfuls of water. Max pressed a hand against her mouth to suppress and hide her laughter, but she wasn’t sure how well she was succeeding.

When Chloe was able to pull herself away from the sink, Max had been able to die down her snickers, for the most part.

Chloe looked at her somewhat sternly. “Don’t say a word.”

Max shrugged innocently. “I wasn’t going to say anything.” Feeling that enough time had passed, she picked up one of her own mini corndogs and took a bite. “They’re safe to eat now.”

They lapsed into silence as they both ate. Even though she probably wasn’t as hungry as Chloe obviously was, Max found that she had worked up a bit of an appetite. But once she was finished, there were about three of the mini corndogs left over.

She looked up and, just as she suspected, Chloe was finished with her food and eyeing her leftovers. “Are you going to finish that?”

Max rolled her eyes but passed her plate over to Chloe with a smile. “No. Here you go.”

Chloe smiled broadly. “Thanks!”

As Chloe finished off the rest of the food, Max took another look around the apartment. It wasn’t as…decorated as she had expected, and she wondered if that was mostly due to Chloe and Rachel being low on money.

She figured it was about time that she started filling in the blanks of everything she had missed.

“So…. when did you meet Rachel?”

Chloe finished off a mini corndog before looking up at Max in what looked like surprise. She swallowed before answering. “I met her when I was sixteen. So…about five years now.”

“And you’ve been friends ever since?”

“Well um, it’s a little more complicated than that.” Chloe looked hesitant like she wasn’t sure if she should be telling Max this at all. “A lot of bad shit was going down with Rachel’s life when we first met, and I helped her through it. We sort of formed an unbreakable bond after that. But there were temporary breaks…and we had some rough times. We used to have an on and off relationship.”

Relationship. The word and the way Chloe said it implied something that wasn’t pure friendship. Was Rachel….

“She’s your ex?” There was a slight squeak in her voice and she hoped that Chloe would just take it as surprise.

Chloe nodded. “Yeah. It didn’t last long though. We figured out a while ago that we’re better off as friends.”

“Did you love her?”

“I still love her. We…. helped each other through a lot. Just…not in that way anymore.”

The way Chloe said that almost sounded like she was trying to reassure Max of something, and she wasn’t sure why she felt the need to. What Chloe had done with her romantic life really wasn’t any of Max’s business.

But she couldn’t deny it. The fact that beautiful, charming Rachel had been both Chloe’s best friend the past five years and her girlfriend at one point did cause that feeling of inadequacy to rise again.

“I’m glad that you were able to stay friends.”

Chloe smiled. “So am I. And…now I have you back in my life. Between you, Rach, and living here with a sweet job as a tattooist…my life is going pretty good for once.”

“I’m really, really happy for you, Chloe.” And she really was. It may not have seemed like it because of her lameness but she’d been worried about Chloe after the move. And, her jealousy towards Rachel aside…Max was really relieved that Chloe had someone during that period. She brushed away her anxiousness and smiled. “I still can’t believe I ran into you like that.”

“I know. Almost like it was fate, right? And you’d better get used to me, Caufield. Because I’m never letting you leave me again.”

Chloe said the words in a mostly joking tone, but Max knew her well enough to see the insecurity in it as well. It made her once again kick herself for being such a complete failure of a friend the past seven years. She reached across the table and took one of Chloe’s hands into hers. “I’m already used to you. I…. I’m never leaving you again, Chloe. I promise.”

And that was a promise she would never ever break. Not if she could help it.

They locked eyes for a few long moments. Max hoped that both her words and her stare were enough to convey to Chloe that she was not going to take this second chance at being in her life for granted. But even if it wasn’t, she was going to continue to do everything she could to prove it to her.

“Good,” Chloe eventually said. She then cleared her throat. “Alright. Enough of this mushy stuff.” She stood up and walked towards the living room. Max quickly got up and followed her. “What are you doing?”

“Going to turn on some music,” Chloe said matter-of-factly. The grin on her face was something that belonged on the Cheshire cat. “I want to see if you still have the moves.”

Max blushed, remembering the many ‘dance parties’ they’d had as kids. She’d always been a lame dancer and that was another thing that had never changed over the years.

Then again, Chloe had always been the only person who could ever talk her into dancing in the first place.

“I’ve never been good at dancing.”

Chloe seemingly ignored her and turned on the music. Max didn’t recognize the specific song, but it was loud and completely Chloe.

“Didn’t you say that you had to be careful about being too loud for your neighbors?”

“They’ll survive. Now come on…come dance with me, hippie!” Chloe was making gestures with her arms as her own body began to sway to the music, beckoning Max over to her. The sight made Max giggle.

It didn’t take any more effort on Chloe’s part to make Max dance with her after that. She surged forward, allowing Chloe to envelop her in her arms while her arms wrapped around Chloe in return, both laughing as they swayed to the music.

They were definitely being too loud for apartment standards and neither of them could really dance. From an outside view, they probably looked like a train wreck.

But Max found that she didn’t care about any of that. Right now, dancing like a complete goof with Chloe, she was happy and having the most fun that she’d had in a while.

They danced until they were both completely drained of energy, hardly able to move at all anymore. And by the time Chloe had turned off the music and they were both settling onto the couch, they heard the front door swinging open.

They both looked up and saw Rachel entering their view, carrying a few bags and setting them down on the table. She took in the sight of them. “You two look like you just finished running a marathon.”

Still breathing a bit heavily, Chloe grinned and shook her head. “Just doing a little bit of dancing.”

“Hmmm. Sounds like fun.” There was a certain twinkle in Rachel’s eyes as she said it, and Max could have sworn that she saw Chloe roll her eyes as if there was some sort of inside joke between them.

Before Max could read too much into it, Rachel turned to smile at her. “Hey, Max. Nice seeing you again.”

Now she felt guilty for getting so jealous after hearing about the full extent of Chloe’s relationship with Rachel. There hadn’t been any specifically mean thoughts but there had been a sense of bitterness. And Rachel had been nothing but nice and friendly to Max since they’d met.

So, she smiled back. “It’s nice to see you too, Rachel.”

“Did you get food?” Like an eager puppy, Chloe made her way over to the table to investigate the bags of groceries Rachel had brought in with her.

“You told me that Max was going to be here this evening, so I went out a got some munchies. I figured we could have a movie night or something,” Rachel said, watching as Chloe dug through the bags.

Now that everything was out, Max could see what exactly Rachel had brought. Popcorn, nacho Dorito chips, two two-liter bottles of Pepsi, and a bag of Hershey kisses.

“Score!” Chloe exclaimed, grabbing some of the food and bringing it over to the living room. “Let’s get everything set up.

The seating arrangements were decided quickly, with Rachel immediately taking the armchair so that Max and Chloe could share the loveseat.

“That way, I can protect you when you get scared,” Chloe said. It’d been decided that they were going to watch horror movies. 

Max rolled her eyes and laughed at that. “I think we both know who can actually handle horror movies better. I’ll be the one protecting you.” Chloe had always been a chicken when it came to scary movies in the past. Granted, that had never actually stopped her from watching them.

Chloe scoffed lightly in mock offense before taking a seat on the loveseat, patting the seat next to her. After Max had sat down and everyone was seated, Rachel picked up the remote to start the first movie.

* * *

Almost four hours later, Max was beyond tired and filled to the brim with junk food.

As the credits for the last movie rolled, Rachel let out a yawn from her place on the armchair, standing up. “I’m exhausted. I’m going to head off to bed. But this was fun. We should totally do it again sometime.” Max knew that she was mainly directing that statement towards her.

Max nodded slowly and tiredly. “It was. And…we definitely should.”

Considering they’d spent the last few hours watching movies, she and Rachel still hadn’t talked to her too much. But Rachel continued to seem really nice. And Max liked her. She made a mental note to remember that the next time her jealousy started to cloud over.

After Rachel had gone off to bed, Max looked over at Chloe, who looked to be halfway to falling asleep right there on the loveseat. She shook her gently. “Chloe, I need a ride home.”

“You should stay.”

Max blinked, wondering if she heard her correctly. “What?”

“You should stay, the night I mean.” Chloe sat up, rousing herself from her half-sleep.

With how tired she was, it was honestly really tempting. “I don’t have a toothbrush or any clothes for tomorrow.”

“Rachel is your size. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind lending you some clothes. And there’s a spare toothbrush in the bathroom. Come on, Max. Please?” Apparently, she wasn’t too tired to shoot Max her signature puppy dog eyes.

Max let out a sigh but smiled. She wasn’t reluctant about this at all if she was being honest with herself. “Okay.” 

They moved into Chloe’s bedroom. Max was too tired to pay too much attention to the details right now, but she could already see that it was much more decorated than the living room or kitchen, decked out in postures and a string of lights.

Chloe stripped herself down to only her shirt and underwear, and Max forced her gaze away, glad that Chloe was probably much too tired to notice how it was affecting her. “Fuck I’m tired. It’s definitely time to hit the hay.”

She climbed into the bed and after a moment’s hesitation, Max followed suit, taking off her own pants and climbing into the bed beside Chloe.

They’d shared a bed countless times as kids. But this was obviously much different. This was twenty-two-year-old Chloe Price, not the kid one. And Max’s heart was racing at the thought.

Chloe threw the blanket over both of them and yawned, laying her head further onto the pillow underneath her. “Goodnight Maxaroni.”

Despite her slight nervousness at the situation, Max was tired enough to pass out at any moment. And Chloe’s bed was beyond comfortable. But she did manage a soft smile and a couple last words.

“Goodnight Chloe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ending was a little rushed and not completely what I wanted, but every time I tried to re-work it I only seemed to make it worse. And I really wanted to get this chapter out already. 
> 
> By the way, thank you so much to everyone who has commented, kudoed, and subscribed so far! This fic is getting more attention than I originally expected it to <3
> 
> Next chapter will be Chloe's POV again!


	4. Chapter 4

The very first thing Chloe sensed upon waking up was the warmness she felt. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt this warm upon waking up in her bed.

After she opened her eyes, it didn’t take her long to realize why.

Sometime during the night, Max must have somehow moved closer to her in her sleep. The smaller girl was currently cuddled into Chloe’s chest, with Chloe’s arms wrapped around her.

Chloe’s heart began to hammer at the realization, and she briefly wondered whether she should try to detangle them before Max woke up.

It took only a few moments to realize that with the way they were positioned, it would be impossible to move without risking waking Max up. And well….it wasn’t like the situation was uncomfortable. Quite the opposite. So, Chloe decided to just leave it be, for now. Especially when it seemed like her nerves were having some mercy on her as the pacing of her heartbeats slowed down as a more peaceful feeling washed over her.

It was still a surreal feeling, to have Max back in her life. Sometimes, she had to remind herself that it really was real and, based on what Max had said yesterday, permanent this time.

Chloe placed her head back further onto the pillow to raise it up a little, being careful to not wake up the girl leaning against her.

She still remembered the first impression she’d had when she saw Max at the shop, during the brief few seconds where she hadn’t realized who she was. A hipster looking girl that looked completely out of place at a tattoo parlor. And who was…. pretty cute.

Her cheeks heated up at that last thought, thankful that Max was still asleep and unable to see.

Okay, so maybe she had a little bit of a crush on Max…. a crush that had likely been there even when they were kids and was now only amplified by this older and even prettier version of Max. A part of her was begging to act on it a little but the problem was, she had no idea how Max would react to something like that, whether she was even into girls, let alone Chloe herself. She’d been trying to get some sort of reading on that since almost the moment Max had re-entered her life, but she always came up blank.

And then though Max finding out that she had a crush on her wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, Chloe still wasn’t sure she was ready to risk facing any sort of rejection.

The feeling of Max finally stirring broke Chloe away from her thoughts.

If the fact that they were pretty much cuddling up to each other bothered Max, she didn’t show it. She let out a yawn as her blue eyes opened.

Trying to be discreet, Chloe awkwardly released her from her grip, feigning a sly grin. “Morning, sleepy head.”

“Chloe, how long have you been awake?” Max asked once she seemed coherent enough.

Chloe shrugged. “Just for a few minutes. We um…. ended up drifting pretty close together last night and I didn’t want to wake you up.”

That was one way of putting it….

“Oh.” Max suddenly seemed a little shy, as if just now remembering what position they had been in when she first woke up. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s cool.” Don’t worry about it at all.

Max gave her a soft smile before getting out of bed to begin pulling on her clothes. Chloe tried not to pay too much attention to the visual of her bare legs. “What time is it?”

Chloe broke herself out of her daze to glance at the digital clock by her bedside. “Almost 10:30. Are you hungry? There’s pancake mix in the kitchen.” She hoped that Max wasn’t planning on taking off right away. It was Saturday, so it wasn’t like she had classes to go attend, right?

“Sure. I could go for some pancakes.” She was wearing her clothes from last night. Chloe made a mental note to ask later if she wanted to borrow some of Rachel’s clothes.

Chloe pulled on a pair of sweatpants to go with the T-shirt she was already wearing before the two of them left the bedroom to head into the kitchen.

As Chloe pulled out the pancake mix, another wave of nostalgia hit her. Memories of the many mornings she and Max had spent together, lounging around the kitchen while her dad…

She froze, trying to force herself to keep her thoughts from going suddenly dark.

The pause most of lasted long enough for Max to notice because she was now looking at her with eyes filled with concern. “Are you okay?”

Chloe nodded quickly. “Yeah, I just….do you remember when we used to make pancakes with my dad? And how he’d always…”

“Put smiley faces on the pancakes with the butter and syrup? Of course, I remember.” Max’s smile was bittersweet, which was fitting for what Chloe was currently feeling. “It was our thing.”

In all honestly, Chloe was kind of surprised that her dad hadn’t been brought up sooner after her and Max’s reunion. With Joyce and Max’s parents often working, it had often been her dad that had kept an eye on the two of them during the many escapades of their childhood. He’d always been a staple to her friendship with Max. And standing here in the kitchen with Max, pancake mix in her hands, she seemed to feel the hole of his loss more strongly than she had in months.

“I miss him,” she said, clearing her throat after it suddenly began to feel thick.  No. She wasn’t going to cry right now.

“I do too.” Max placed a gentle hand on her arm. After what seemed like a moment’s hesitation, she wrapped her arms around her in a hug.

Surprisingly, Chloe found herself quickly ready to return the hug, having not realized how much she really needed it until that moment.

The hug lingered for a few moments until the sound of a stomach rumbling caused them to part. Chloe looked at the shorter girl with amusement, the threat of tears now over. “Wow. Hungry much, Max?”

Max’s cheeks were tinged the slightest of pink. She let out a small laugh. “I’m hungrier than I thought I was, I guess. I’m definitely ready to eat.”

“So am I.”

The sound of Rachel’s voice turned Chloe’s attention towards the hallway. Rachel had emerged from her bedroom, dressed and ready for the day. Her eyes immediately went to the pancake mix in Chloe’s hand. “Are you making breakfast?”

If Rachel had seen the intense moment they’d just had, she didn’t show it, and Chloe was grateful for that.

Chloe nodded and held up the pancake mix with a small grin before proceeding, grabbing a pan to set on the stove. “Chloe Price’s signature pancakes coming right up.”

“I’m surprised that you can make them now. You were always too impatient while we were kids and ended up burning them,” Max teased lightly as she took a seat at the small kitchen table.

Rachel followed her and took a seat beside her. “Trust me, it wasn’t easy to teach her.”

“Right. You two are going to start ganging up on me now. I see how it is.” But Chloe was smiling widely as she turned back to work on the pancakes. Secretly, she really wanted Max and Rachel to bond and maybe become friends. They were both such important key people in her life that it seemed fitting for them to know each other and get along. She’d become a little worried about that recently, after her talk with Max yesterday. There’d been a tenseness in it when Rachel was brought up, and Chloe had feared that maybe Max didn’t like her much or was jealous of her. But as she watched Max and Rachel smile and talk with each other at the table from the corner of her eye, she was relieved to see that she may have been wrong in that assumption.

Rachel shrugged at her words. “Sorry Chloe. I’m afraid there’s going to be more of that. Max knew you when you were kids, which means she has stories and secrets about you that I don’t know about yet.” She leaned towards Max with a somewhat serious gaze, as if the topic at hand was of the utmost importance. “What do you say, Max? Are you going to give me the deets?”

Max looked a bit startled like she didn’t know how to respond. But eventually, she seemed to relax, shooting Rachel a soft grin. “I may be able to let you in on a few things.”

Rachel had a way of making people comfortable, despite how intimidating she may initially come across as. Chloe was happy but not fully surprised that Max seemed to be relaxing more around her.

After breakfast was finished, Chloe dished up the pancakes onto three plates, each of them getting two. But not long after Chloe had taken a seat in between them, her phone flashed with a text, making a loud buzzing noise that was impossible to ignore. Chloe mentally cursed herself for not turning the volume down earlier.

Before she could even think of hiding it, Max saw the name flash across the screen of her phone from where it laid in the middle of the table. “Oh wow…. Joyce. I haven’t talked to her in forever.”

Wordlessly, Chloe grabbed her phone and stuffed it into her pocket, immediately digging into the pancakes in front of her.

She’d hoped that it would have been enough to make everyone forget about the incoming message. Unfortunately, Max hadn’t been fully deterred. She looked at Chloe with an expression that looked like confusion. “You aren’t going to reply to it?”

Chloe shrugged. “It won’t kill her to wait until I’m done eating.”

“Chloe has been having issues with her mom lately,” Rachel suddenly said to Max after having swallowed a bite of her own food. “They haven’t talked to each other in ages.”

Chloe shot Rachel a dirty look. It wasn’t as if she could fully be mad at her…they’d never agreed to keep her problems with Joyce a secret from Max, after all. But she was fully ruining her plans to remain in her little bubble of ignorant bliss for at least a short while longer. Max had just come back into her life. She wanted to focus on that, not all that shit she had left behind in Arcadia Bay.

Max looked at her with concern. “What’s going on Chloe?”

She supposed she was backed into a little bit of a corner now, courteously of Rachel…

She let out a rough sigh, trying to keep her frustrated defensiveness at bay. “A little bit after you left, she married a new guy. And…. I didn’t like him, okay? And it caused a lot of fights between us. She’s finally divorcing him now but…I’m just not ready to talk to her again. That’s all.” The words came out much snappier than she’d meant them too.

There was obviously much more to it than that, but she’d already said more than she wanted to.

Luckily, Max seemed to take the hint, even though it was clear from her worried expression that she wanted to know more. She looked at Chloe for a few moments before turning her head to stare down at her plate. “Alright. I’m sorry. I um…I hope you work things out with her eventually.”

She really needed to learn to control her impulsive temper. She reached forward to place a hand on Max’s arm, calming herself down. “Hey, look Max…I’m not mad, okay? I just don’t want to focus on that right now. We’re finally back together and that’s all I want to think about.”

It was mostly the truth.

Max looked away from her food to look at Chloe again, offering a small smile and nodding. But there was something about it that seemed kind of forced and Chloe once again cursed herself for always having the knack of fucking things up.

The rest of the breakfast went by quietly and smoothly, even though there was now a certain tenseness in the air. Eventually, Rachel had taken Max into her bedroom to lend her some clothes for the time being and after an outfit had been picked out, Max went into the bathroom to change, leaving Chloe and Rachel alone in the dining room.

Chloe immediately took the opportunity to wheel on her, speaking quietly but sharp. “What the fuck was that about?”

Rachel lifted her eyebrows questionably. “What?”

“Don’t play dumb. Why did you…just blurt that out to her like that? You knew I didn’t want to talk about it.”

It was bad enough that Joyce’s attempts to contact her was bringing her back to places she didn’t want to think about. But now that Max knew that something was going on, the topic was going to plague their conversations now too. And Chloe had just wanted a little more time where they could just bask in being in each other’s lives again.

This was one of the few times where Rachel didn’t seem to know what to say right away. But eventually, she let out a sigh. “Because I think you should talk to Max about what’s been going on with your mom.”

“I don’t need to talk about it. But even if I did, you already knew about it.”

At that, Rachel let out a sound that resembled a laugh but sounded much too choked and sarcastic to be genuine. “Oh, please Chloe. You hardly talk to me about it. And I know it’s been eating you up. You haven’t acted the same ever since you got that first message from her.”

Chloe couldn’t exactly completely deny that. While she tried to brush away thoughts of Joyce, David, and Arcadia Bay away from her mind on the surface, they were still lingering deep down, forever taunting her.

But Rachel trying to constantly drag them back to the surface as well wasn’t helping her ignore them until they eventually went away.

When she didn’t respond after a few moments, Rachel continued. “Look, Max knew you before…all that shit went down. I just think that maybe talking to her about it could help give you a fresh perspective…”

“From now on, stay out of my fucking business. It has nothing to do with you.”

Rachel’s eyes widened in surprise before a rare, genuinely hurt look seemed to overtake them.

Before Chloe could even contemplate apologizing, Max was coming out of the bathroom, decked out in the clothes Rachel had lent to her.

It was a look that was entirely different from her usual hipster look. She was wearing a pair of Rachel’s skinny jeans that hugged her legs and showed off her curves well. She also had on one of Rachel’s signature tops and her plaid, red jacket that always seemed to make the person wearing it look like some sort of rock star.

While Chloe found Max’s usual look cute and appealing in her own way, she couldn’t deny that Max looked hot in this style.

Being her usual self, Rachel pulled herself out of the shell-shocked state she’d been in seconds before to wolf whistle. “Wow, looking good, Max.”

Chloe nodded in agreement, eyes still glued to her childhood best friend. “Yeah, Maxipad. That’s a…. that’s an awesome look on you.”

Max flushed, clearly overwhelmed by both of their responses. “Thanks.” She looked towards Rachel. “Thanks for letting me borrow the clothes. I should probably head back to my dorm. Is it alright if I bring the clothes back sometime tomorrow?”

Rachel nodded. “Sure. That’s fine.”

“I’ll go with you!” Chloe blurted out a bit too abruptly.

Both Max and Rachel spun to look at her.

“Back to my dorm?” Max asked, still seeming surprised by the eagerness of it.

Chloe nodded, trying to feign casualness. “Well, yeah. I have to drive you back, right? Would it be cool if I just hung out there for a little while?”

She didn’t really want to be around Rachel right now after the confrontation they just had. And she wasn’t quite ready to let Max go for the day, especially since she wasn’t sure where exactly they stood after she snapped at her. She inwardly stiffened as she reminded herself of that. Does Max even want to be around her right now or was she planning on going home to avoid her?

Her fears were mostly dashed when a faint smile crossed Max’s lips. “You can come if you want. But I don’t really have anything exciting there.”

“Nah, it’s fine. We’ll pick up some food on the way there and I’ll be good to go.”

To her enjoyment and relief, Max let out a short laugh at that.

* * *

The ride back to Max’s dorm was sort of quiet. Chloe was desperately trying to figure out a way to break the tension that had formed between them since that breakfast incident but could find none. She once again cursed Rachel for putting her in that situation.

A moment finally came when she drove into the driveway of a McDonald’s about five minutes away from their destination.

“Sheesh, I’m starved. Do you want anything Max?”

Max looked at her with both amusement and surprise. “I thought you were kidding about stopping and getting food. We just had breakfast thirty minutes ago.”

“Hey, I have a big appetite. Always have always will. Now, do you want anything? My treat.” Chloe wiggled her eyebrows.

“You’re such a dork,” Max laughed softly in a way that caused Chloe’s chest to swell. She paused in thought as she looked at the menu. “I could go for an apple pie.”

“That’s all? You’re no fun.”

“I’m sorry that I don’t have a bottomless pit of a stomach like you do.”

Chloe placed a hand over her heart in a mock display of hurt before turning to place their order, Max an apple pie and coke and a quarter pounder and Mr. Pibb for herself.

After they had their food, they continued the drive. And to Chloe’s relief, the tension had been broken, at least for the time being.

* * *

“It looks like you’ll get to meet Kate,” Max said as Chloe eventually parked the car. “I think she has her lunch break around this time.”

“Who's Kate?” Chloe abruptly asked, immediately turning to look at Max. Mentally, she smacked herself for her jump response. She still didn’t even know whether Max was into girls that way and even if she did, she’d said nothing to Chloe about having a girlfriend.

Luckily, Max didn’t seem to sense anything strange about the way she asked the question. “My roommate. She’s really sweet. I think you’ll like her.”

After quickly reminding herself to cool her shit, Chloe nodded. She’d been sort of hoping to have Max to herself a little longer but then again, maybe it’d be neat to meet someone from Max’s current life. Max had met Rachel, so it was only fair.

After they were both out of the car, Max led the way up the stairs that led to her dorm, taking out a key to unlock it before allowing them both inside. “Hey Kate, it’s me. I brought Chloe. I hope that’s okay.”

Chloe noted the way Max had referred to her by her name. Had she talked to Kate about her before?

It didn’t take long for them to find Kate after they had fully entered the dorm. Chloe quickly caught sight of a girl with dirty blonde hair sitting at the kitchen table, her eyes glued to the screen of a laptop. Upon realizing that they were there, she tore herself away from it long enough to look towards them, offering a warm smile.

“Hey, Max. And nice to meet you, Chloe. Max has told me a lot about you.”

Well, that answered her earlier question.

“Nice to meet you too,” she replied, suddenly feeling a bit awkward. She didn’t normally have too difficult of a time finding things to say to people. But Kate seemed like she was important to Max, and it made her want to leave a good impression.

Kate was all smiles as she nodded, before her expression grew a bit sheepish. “Were you two hoping for some alone time? I could always go down to the library….”

Max quickly shook her head. “No, it’s okay Kate. Chloe just wanted to visit for a little while.”

It was normal for Max to not want to kick Kate out of her own dorm, but something about the fast way she responded almost seemed desperate as if she didn’t want to be left alone with Chloe. Maybe she wasn’t as over the Joyce and Rachel situation as Chloe thought. She once against cursed herself for snapping, and cursed Rachel for causing the situation to begin with.

“Alright. If you’re sure.” Kate went back to typing away on her laptop.

Max looked at Chloe as she shut the door behind her, pointing towards the small couch near the back of the dorm. “Do you want to sit down and watch some TV?”

Chloe shrugged lightly before nodding. Max silently sat down on the couch and turned on the tiny TV that sat on a coffee table across from it on with a remote, seemingly putting it on a random channel. Chloe took a seat next to her, all too aware of the tension that still lingered around them.

With the combination of Max’s clear stiff silence and the fact that she had turned the TV onto the News of all things, it didn’t take long for Chloe to be the one to break the silence. “Are you mad at me? I told you I was sorry about snapping.”

There was more bitterness in her tone of voice than she’d intended there to be and she briefly worried that she might have made the situation worse. After a second, Max turned towards her, looking timid. “Why didn’t you want me to know what’s going on with your mom?”

It wasn’t a direct answer to Chloe’s question. But it did tell her what Max was upset about. It must have taken her a few moments too long to respond because Max quickly began to prattle on.

“I…. I know I don’t have much right to pry after everything. But um…. you know you can talk to me about anything, don’t you Chloe? I won’t judge or…”

Chloe quickly shook her head. “No Max, no. It isn’t anything like that. I just….” She let out a sigh. Maybe it was time to be completely honest. “Joyce has been calling me a lot lately. And it’s making me…. even more, freaked out by the situation. I’ve sort of just been pretending it isn’t happening at all to avoid it. It’s not just you…I haven’t really been talking to anyone about it.”

The tenseness in Max’s shoulders seemed to release a bit at hearing that it wasn’t that Chloe didn’t trust her enough to talk to her. But she still appeared worried. “But she and that guy you don’t like are divorcing now, aren’t they? Maybe she’s calling because she wants to apologize.”

“I know. But I don’t know if I’m ready to forgive her.”

Chloe was almost surprised at how easily those words slipped out. It wasn’t something that she hadn’t even admitted to Rachel yet. After all this time, it seemed that her subconscious still trusted Max enough to tell her everything. She supposed that some things never changed.

It took Max a few seconds to respond to that but when she did, her voice was laced with understanding, a glint of sympathy in her eyes. “You don’t have to forgive her. I…don't know exactly what happened between you two, but I know it must have been bad.”

It was bad. At least as far as David was concerned. Maybe she’d tell Max more of the details later, but she wasn’t really comfortable with talking about it now, not with Kate sitting across the room from them on her laptop.

Max continued. “But Chloe, I think you should go talk to her. Even if it’s just you yelling at her and telling her how you feel. I know you want to avoid it, but I don’t think it’s making anything better for you.”

She had a point, as much as Chloe didn’t want to admit it. And honestly, being more open to Max about everything was relieving some of the stress she’d been feeling recently. She made a mental note to apologize to Rachel later.

“How about this? I’ll go back to Arcadia Bay and talk to her…. if you go with me. Will you do that?”

Max seemed surprised but quickly nodded. “Of course, I will, if you want me to. I…I’d do anything for you, Chloe.”

She placed a hand on Chloe’s arm tenderly, a motion that sent Chloe’s heart racing, to her mild annoyance. The idea of going back to Arcadia Bay even for a short visit was daunting, but the fact that Max would be by her side the entire time would make it doable. There was still a lot of things that needed to be said between them…mainly the fact that it was becoming more and more clear that she was a goner for her childhood best friend and needed to know if there was a chance that Max felt the same way for her. But for now, she’d bask in the knowledge that Max was truly and fully back in her life. And that she’d never leave it again.

She grinned. “Duh, I want you to go. That’s why I asked.”

When Max returned her grin with a genuine one of her own, Chloe tried to ignore the sensation of yet another flutter spreading through her chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I know, I suck at the updating process. If anyone is wondering, I haven't forgotten about the tattoo part of the story, it's just taking a backseat until we get through this Chloe and Joyce stuff. But I have plans for it. 
> 
> I was originally going to have more Chloe and Kate interaction in this chapter but it just wasn't fitting in. So I'll be saving a particular conversation that I want them to have for a later chapter instead. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! And for being patient <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi....i'm finally back. Sorry that the update took so long. Thank you to everyone who has commented and/or left kudos so far <3
> 
> This chapter is kind of on the short side, unfortunately, but it's an important one.

With a frustrated huff, Max set her laptop aside.

She hadn’t been able to focus on her homework for the last couple of days. Not while knowing that she and Chloe were due to go back to Arcadia Bay together in a few days from now. That very weekend, in fact.

They were all set to go. Their plane tickets were bought (which Chloe had insisted on buying, despite Max’s protests. " _Come on, dude. I’m the one that asked you to go. I got this.”_ ) Eventually, Max had relented, but only after Chloe had promised to let her buy a few of the meals and motel cost they would need while on the road from the Portland airport to Arcadia Bay.

Thinking about all of that made her excited. She and Chloe were going to be spending a lot of alone time together. Between the plane ride from the San Francisco Airport to the Portland one, the drive through Oregon, and then the time they’d spend in Arcadia Bay, it was going to be kind of a long trip. And while she liked Rachel, the idea of having Chloe all to herself during that time made her strangely giddy.

Speaking of Rachel….

She noticed that her phone was lighting up with the announcement of a next text. And onscreen was Rachel’s name.

Max blinked. Why would Rachel be texting her this early in the morning? She grabbed her phone and opened the text, quickly reading it.

**(9:06 AM)** Rachel: Hey Max! Are you busy?

Not having any clue as to where this could be going, Max replied.

**(9:06 AM)** No. My first class isn’t until 1:00 today. Why?

**(9:07 AM)** Rachel: Great! Do you want to go out for breakfast? My treat

**(9:09 AM)** Is Chloe going too?

**(9:10 AM) Rachel:** Nope. She’s busy at the shop this morning. But I thought we could hang out

She and Rachel had never hung out or even really talked without Chloe being involved somehow, other than that first meeting at the tattoo parlor before she realized Chloe worked there. And while Rachel was nice, the idea of hanging out alone with her made Max feel somewhat anxious, as she always did while spending a good chunk of time with someone she didn’t know very well.

Still…. she was curious about Rachel had in mind. And why she was randomly inviting her to breakfast today of all days.

**(9:14 AM)** What time?

The reply was almost instant.

**(9:14 AM) Rachel:** I was thinking around 10? I can pick you up. Just send me the address

Max quickly got out of bed to get dressed and brush her teeth.

* * *

 

Rachel ends up arriving to pick her up in Chloe’s truck.

“I haven’t saved up enough money to get my own car yet,” Rachel explained, probably having seen her confused look as she got into the passenger seat. “So, Chloe lets me borrow her car from time to time. I’ll just need to pick her up from the shop once she gets off work.”

Max nodded, buckling her seatbelt. She really needed to get her own driver’s license, especially if she was going to hang out with Chloe and Rachel. If only driving didn’t absolutely terrify her. “Where are we going?”

Rachel started up the car again, moving out of Max’s campus parking lot. “There’s this cute little diner that Chloe and I go to a lot. They have the best pancakes. I think you’ll like it.”

They lapsed into a brief silence after that, Max not being sure as to what to say. She still couldn’t quite wrap her mind about why Rachel would want to go to breakfast with her and only her. They got along fine when they hung out at her and Chloe’s apartment, but aside from that very brief moment at the tattoo shop, they had never really talked much without Chloe being around. And the sudden invitation now seemed random to her.

But she figured it’d be rude to question it. Maybe Rachel just wasn’t the type to want to go out to breakfast alone. Then again, she also didn’t seem like the type to be on a shortage of friends.

“Thanks for inviting me,” Max eventually said with a small smile as Rachel parked the car outside a small diner. It really was small, with a sign outside it that said Carol’s Corner. The look of it suddenly reminded Max of The Two Whales, the small diner at Arcadia Bay that Chloe’s mother, Joyce, worked at. It’d been years since Max had laid eyes on the place, but it had been a distinct part of her childhood. Rachel had said that she and Chloe came to Carol’s Corner a lot. Max couldn’t help but wonder if Chloe was more homesick than she let on.

“Not a problem. I wanted some company. I know we haven’t hung out much yet, but I want to fix that. Anyone who is so important to Chloe must be cool,” Rachel said warmly, shutting off the car engine.

After they left the car, they entered the diner. It was obviously a slow morning, with it only being a Wednesday, and they were directed to a booth almost immediately. Max sat down in her seat across from Rachel, pretending to look at the menu even though she had already pretty much decided on pancakes.

“So…Chloe told me that you’re going to Arcadia Bay with her on Saturday,” Rachel said only a few moments after the waitress had taken their orders.

Max looked up at her, suddenly feeling a little anxious. Was this why Rachel invited her out? She knew that she and Chloe had been a couple at one point. Did it bother her that she wasn’t going with them?

Max tried to keep her anxiousness to a bearable level. Rachel hadn’t done anything to give her the impression that she was angry about anything. “Yeah um…she asked me to. I guess she didn’t want to go alone.”

They were interrupted by the waitress bringing over their orange juices. She was a middle-aged woman, with brown hair that was greying a little at the roots and a warm smile. She held up her notepad in preparation to write. “Are you two ladies ready to order?”

Rachel nodded, smiling at the waitress. “Yes, please. I’ll have your breakfast platter with bacon and toast. Eggs scrambled.”

The waitress jotted down her order before turning towards Max. “And you, dear?”

Max cleared her throat before speaking. Normally, she didn’t have too hard of a time with ordering food. But the conversation with Rachel was already rattling her anxiousness. She hoped that she didn’t seem too much of a fumbling idiot. “I uh…. I’ll have the pancakes, please. The three stack with butter and maple syrup.”

Her order was written down as well before the waitress took both of their menus off their hands. “I’ll have those out to you in a jiffy,” she said brightly before walking away to give their orders to the cook.

After the waitress was gone, Rachel took a dainty sip of her orange juice. “I think it’s good that you’re going. You knew Chloe before…all that shit with her and Joyce happened. It’ll be good for her to have that kind of support.”

Max wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to that. But luckily, it didn’t seem that Rachel was done talking. “Max, can I ask you something personal?”

“I…. sure.” She just hoped it wasn’t something she’d be uncomfortable with answering.

Rachel offered her a small smile as if to reassure her. “It’s cool if you don’t want to answer. But, have you ever been in a relationship before? Like a romantic one?”

Now that through her through a loop. And now she was fumbling with how to answer. The truth was, she’d never been in a relationship or even had a first kiss. But it made her feel lame to admit that to Rachel, who was confident, beautiful, and most likely the exact opposite in that regard.

Still, not responding would probably give Rachel her answer anyway. So, after a moment’s hesitation, she shook her head no. “I um…never had time for one. I’ve always been too focused on school, you know?”

That part was a lie. There’d been people in her life who she liked, who she wanted to go out with, but she was too awkward to know how to approach someone in that way. And she never really believed that she had much to offer anyone when it came to a romantic relationship. Reminding herself of all of that only served to make her feel even smaller next to someone like Rachel Amber.

If Rachel didn’t believe her reason, she didn’t show it. Her gaze was only sympathetic. “That sucks. Do you ever want to date anyone?”

“Hmmm maybe. If…if I meet the right person.”

“Who would be the ‘right person’?”

Max was half tempted to admit that the questions, which were starting to feel like an interrogation, were beginning to make her feel uncomfortable. But just as quickly as that idea came to mind, she berated herself for it. There was no reason to get that worked up. Rachel was only trying to make girl talk. It was a normal thing. She needed to quit being over-sensitive and relax a little.

“I don’t know. Someone nice, I guess. Someone that I get along with and like.”

“Someone like Chloe?”

All at once, the world seemed to stop spinning completely. That one single sentence was more surprising than Rachel randomly inviting her to breakfast and asking about her love life altogether. Max could feel her face heat up but whether it was from bashfulness or shock, she wasn’t sure. Maybe a mixture of both. She only hoped that her face wasn’t too visibly red.

“Chloe and I are only friends,” she eventually managed in a weak voice. “I…we don’t like each other like _that_.”

This had been the last thing she had expected Rachel to bring up. But it made Max worry, for more than one reason. Rachel wasn’t just Chloe’s friend, after all. She was her ex-girlfriend. Did she want to get back together with Chloe and thought Max was in the way of that? The idea of her being any sort of competition for someone like Rachel was laughable, but for some reason, Max’s throat still felt clogged at the thought.

Rachel didn’t really seem convinced of her words, a certain twinkle lingering in her eyes. “Well, that’s too bad. Because I’m pretty sure that Chloe is into you.”

Almost frantically, Max searched Rachel’s face for any sign of jealousy or anger but could find none. Instead, she seemed almost playful and hopeful.

While sort of relieving, this only served to confuse Max even more.

Still blushing, she shook her head. “She isn’t. Not like that. I know she isn’t.”

“Max, you know Chloe really well. Maybe better than I do in some ways. But I’m the one that’s been with her the last handful of years, and I know what she’s like when she’s into a girl. She has the hots for you. She would kill me if she knew that I was telling you this, but it’s true.”

Max paused, thinking over her interactions with Chloe over the last few days. It was true that Chloe seemed to want to be around her a lot, but she had always rationalized that as her wanting to make up for the time they lost as friends. And Max had been fully willing to go along with it, both out of guilt and because she had missed Chloe so much and didn’t want to lose any more days with her than she had to.

But…. there had also been certain moments. Moments that made Max briefly confused over how Chloe felt about her. Chloe telling her that she wanted to ‘leave her mark on her’ after agreeing to do her tattoo. Chloe sending her winky face emojis when they were texting each other. Chloe almost seeming like she had to reassure Max that she and Rachel were no longer together romantically. And moments where Chloe looked at her for a few moments longer than necessary…

But could all of that really mean something? Could Chloe…. have feelings for her?

She couldn’t help but continue to doubt it. With an ex that looked like Rachel Amber, how could Max ever measure up?

“It’s okay if you don’t feel the same way,” Rachel said, her tone softer now. “I don’t mean to put you in an uncomfortable spot. Chloe will still want to be friends with you no matter what. But I think you two would be good together.”

“Why…why are you even pushing this, if you don’t mind my asking?” For some reason, the whirling emotions swirling through her made Max more loose-lipped and brave. “I know you two were together once. Wouldn’t…it bother you if we got together like that?”

To her slight surprise, it took almost no time for Rachel to respond. “I want Chloe to be happy. And I think you two would make each other happy. Chloe…is one of the most important people in my life, but we’re better off as friends. When we were together…. I fucked up. A lot. And I hurt her.” For the first time since Max had met her, Rachel seemed a little choked up. But she seemed to be able to maintain her composure enough to hold back any possible tears. “She forgave me for the shit I did, and we fixed our friendship, but I know we can never go back to being like that. Besides…I’ve found that I’d much rather have her as a best friend.”

The nosy part of Max wanted to know what exactly Rachel had done to cause her and Chloe’s relationship to fall apart, but she knew it wasn’t really any of her business. And if Rachel wanted to tell her, she would have said it right then. Instead, she only offered small words of comfort. “You’re really important to her, Rachel. She…smiles so much whenever she talks about you.”

She hadn’t meant for the words to come out as jealous, at all. But she feared they did.

Rachel smiled softly, seemingly having gotten over her emotional spiel. “I know I am. But you’re important to her too.”

Their moment was interrupted when the waitress brought over their food. Max picked up her fork with slightly wobbly fingers after her pancakes were set in front of her, digging in to take a small bite. But she could hardly focus on the delicious taste of the pancakes with the conversation she was currently having.

“Again, I’m not going to assume to know how you feel,” Rachel said as she picked up her own fork. “But Max…if you do feel the same way, you need to make the first move. Because I know Chloe won’t.”

Max nodded, resisting the urge to tell Rachel that she didn’t think she could make the first move either, even if she wanted to.

…. Did she want to?

Max had never dated anyone. She’d had small crushes on boys here and there, but nothing had ever come from them. She was always too nervous to peruse anything. And she’d never considered the idea that she liked girls in that way. At least not until now.

She couldn’t deny that there had been moments where Chloe had made her blush. And moments where Max’s heart had hammered while being near with her. When she heard more details about Chloe and Rachel’s relationship, she knew she’d been jealous. But she always thought that her jealousy stemmed from the fact that Rachel had taken over the spot as Chloe’s best friend.

Now…she wasn’t so sure.

“I…I don’t know how I feel,” she eventually said, quietly.

Rachel was chewing a forkful of egg. She swallowed before answering. “That’s okay. Just think about it maybe?”

Max managed a small nod in response.

As they ate their breakfast, they lapsed into a more casual conversation about Max’s schooling and the new guy Rachel was seeing, for which Max was grateful. Even if she couldn’t entirely focus on it.

* * *

 

After Rachel had dropped Max off back at her dorm, it was only around 11:30 in the morning. Which meant she had some time to take a short nap before she’d have to get ready for class. She tried to take advantage of it, even though she was too distracted to fully fall asleep. Eventually, she gave up and threw herself into the shower after only ten minutes of trying.

Once her short shower was over and she was dried off, she stepped out of the bathroom with a robe on and a towel around her head. She quickly noticed that her phone was glowing as it sat on her bedside table, indicating that she had received a new text.

Max sat on the edge of her bed and opened it, her heart skipping a few beats when she saw who it was from.

Chloe.

**(11:43 AM)** Chloe: Hey Maxaroni. You awake yet?

Max smiled, figuring she had some time to send Chloe a few messages back.

**(12:00 PM)** Sorry I was in the shower. I’m getting ready for class. What’s up?

**(12:01) Chloe:** Just wanted to say hey. And I wanted to talk to you about something.

Max froze, remembering the conversation she and Rachel had at the diner. Could this have something to do with it?

**(12:04 PM)** What did you want to talk about?

**(12:05 PM** ) Chloe: Your tattoo. I have more designs for you to look at. And I wanted to know if you wanted to have it done before or after our trip?

She let out a gulp of air. But she wasn’t sure if she was more relieved or disappointed about what the topic was actually about.

**(12:06 PM)** After. I don’t want my arm to hurt on the trip.

**(12:06 PM)** Chloe: Tattoos don’t hurt that bad. Big baby.

**(12:07 PM)** Shush. I’m not a baby :(

**(12:09 PM) Chloe:** You are. But you’re my baby.

This was the kind of thing that confused Max. These moments where it could also seem like Chloe was trying to flirt, but could also just be, well, Chloe being Chloe. But it was the main reason she found that she couldn’t completely dismiss what Rachel said.

She must have taken a little too long to respond because her phone dinged with another text.

**(12:14 PM) Chloe:** I’m actually looking forward to the trip a little now. Talking to Joyce is gonna suck but it’ll be better with you there.

A large smile stretched across Max’s lips as she read Chloe’s text, quickly sending a reply this time.

**(12:15 PM)** I’m really looking forward to it too Chloe :)

**(12:16 PM)** Chloe: Good. I guess I should let you get ready for class now. Wouldn’t want to make the nerd late.

**(12:17 PM)** Hey! I take offense to that.

**(12:18 PM)** Chloe: I only speak the truth. Can I stop by your place later to show you the new designs? Maybe at around 6?

**(12:19 PM)** Sure. See you then :)

After Max finally put her phone down to continue getting ready, she couldn’t stop herself from continuing to think about Chloe and what Rachel said. It was all a confusing mess.

She did know one thing, though. If Rachel was right and Chloe really did have feelings for her, Max was going to make sure she sorted her own feelings out before she would even think about saying anything to her about it.

She’d already hurt Chloe enough. And she wanted to do her best to make sure that she never hurt her again in any way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I marked the fic as having twelve chapters overall but that's a rough estimate. It may change as more chapters get published, depending on how things go. But I don't expect this to be an extremely long fic. 
> 
> I won't promise to have the next chapter up sooner because I know myself, but I will say that I will try my best. Thank you for reading <3

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't going to be too long of a fic...right now, i'm thinking maybe around 10 chapters? I'm also debating whether to keep it strictly Max's POV or to have it switch back and forth between Max and Chloe chapter by chapter. (So the next chapter would be in Chloe's POV). Decisions, decisions...
> 
> Anyway, thank you to everyone who is giving it a shot so far :)
> 
> Btw...Chloe isn't being written as bitter as she was in the game. And that's largely because:
> 
> A: Her and Max are a little older than in canon upon meeting each other again.  
> B: Chloe is away from Arcadia Bay, David, and a lot of the other negative influences on her life. So she doesn't feel as much of a need to lash out. 
> 
> With that said though, she IS a little more bitter about Max's abandonment than she's letting on, and that will be explored later.


End file.
